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Adriana Dalea
Volunteering Paper
August, 2014
Relay for Life
Relay for Life is a division of the American Cancer Society with the purpose of
fundraising and raising awareness for cancer and all the adjacent effects derived from this
disease.

During the year, the Relay for Life movement organizes a multitude of fundraising and
informative events and activities, and once a year, all these activities are celebrated throughout
the communities with an overnight celebration which includes walks, such as the survivors lap,
different types of informative activities, support groups and all kinds of other health and social
information that can assist cancer patients, their families and caregivers. The event is dedicated
to the families and has music, food and promotes the ideas of giving, love and support within the
community.
I participated as a volunteer for the Relay for Life event in Schaumburg, Illinois and I
witnessed a great sense of joy, kindness and supportive environment that night. I was told the
idea of this movement is that if someone walks for an entire night, the sensation of tiredness and
effort is similar with what a cancer patient feels during the chemotherapy treatment. This is why
during the Relay for Life walks there are several teams enrolled to walk during the night and
raise funds to support the cause.
During my participation I helped out at the registration desk and I was involved in
helping raising signatures for a petition promoting palliative care legislation. Currently, there are
a few bills in work to be accepted by the Congress: H.R. 1339, S. 641 and H.R. 1666. These bills
will help patients and their families to receive what they need when facing the battle with cancer,
such as coordinated and patient-centered care, pain and stress management, nutritional, caregiver
and psychological support. I was pleasantly surprised how many signatures I was able to obtain,
the openness and positive attitude the participants had, and the entire experience brought me
confidence that the Relay for Life movement has a successful and positive outcome among the
people. It made me decide to get involved in the future, and bring along my family to participate.
It was a great atmosphere with many children, and many happy cancer survivors and supportive
families and friends. I recommend this to anyone to experience the multitude of positive feelings
and joy that I was able to feel that night.
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